BW Communities

Morgan Stanley, GIC In Talks For 200-Mn Mumbai Property

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[Investors including a fund managed by Morgan Stanley and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp are in separate talks to buy a Mumbai property from textiles firm Alok Industries for about $200 million, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The company has been looking to sell a building and the land it sits on in central Mumbai, said the sources, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media. Sunil Khandelwal, chief financial officer of Alok Industries, told Reuters that the company is in sale talks for the assets with several funds, but no decision has been made. Both Morgan Stanley and GIC declined to comment. Other Mumbai textile firms including Bombay Dyeing, Century Textiles, Provogue India, and Arvind Ltd are also trying to sell or develop real estate assets in India's financial capital, where office towers have sprouted on the sites of former textile mills. Private equity investment in Indian property is down slightly this year to about $784 million, from $817 million at the same time last year, data from VCCircle.com, an industry tracker, showed. Domestic fund houses including Kotak Real Estate Fund, IndiaReit and ASK Investments are all in the process of raising funds totalling about $1 billion, fund officials have told Reuters. (Reuters)